Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran stage Twitter 'spat'

Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran have staged a fake Twitter spat.

The 29-year-old R&B star and singer/songwriter Ed have recreated the dispute between Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj over the latter's failure to receive more nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards by contriving an argument of their own.

Bruno tweeted: "Yo I want in on this twitter Beef!! VMAs is the new WWF!! @edsheeran F**k You! SHOW YOURSELF!!! @edsheeran (sic)"

And Ed was happy to rise to the challenge, warning his pop rival he would be defeated in the wrestling-style spat.

The 24-year-old Brit said: "Any way we do dis you gon' come up short (sic)."

Bruno responded: "That Cut deep..U always know how to sheer me to the core. I can't believe we're Sheeran this in public. How dare u! (sic)."

The spat between Taylor and Nicki - which inspired Bruno and Ed's social media prank - erupted after the hip hop star bemoaned being nominated for just three VMA awards, with her 'Feeling Myself' promo missing out entirely and 'Anaconda' being overlooked for the top prize, Video of the Year.

"If I was a different 'kind' of artist, 'Anaconda' would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well.

"When the 'other' girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination.

"If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.

"I'm not always confident. Just tired. Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it (sic)."

Taylor - who received nine nominations in total, including for Video of the Year and Best Female - felt the tweets were aimed at her due to her 'Bad Blood' promo being up for Video of the Year and replied: "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot."

However, the duo have since reconciled their differences and Taylor has even invited Nicki to join her on stage at the VMAs.